Addison Lee - 3 Hard Searches for 1 Account

T-G-C · 4 February 2018 at 11:24AM

I applied for a credit account with Addison Lee. There is no direct lending, it is simply to take rides on credit and pay the invoice in full at the end of the billing cycle.

When I opened the account with them, the lady said she would run a credit check over the phone, which I passed.

After looking at CRA records, there are three hard searches on file from Addison Lee, for the same financial product, not different applications, as my first attempt was approved.

The date(s) of each hard search:

Checking Credit Application

04/01/2018

Checking Credit Application

30/12/2017

Checking Credit Application

29/12/2017

Just to clarify, these hard searches are all with CallCredit, not because they've searched with other CRAs.

1. Are they legally allowed to make 3 individual hard searches when opening one account with them for the same financial service?

2. What would be their need to make 3 searches? I would assume everything they need to know about me can be pulled in one hard search, an extra 2 contains the same info?

3. Do I have any grounds to dispute the 2 extra hard searches, other than the one made on 4th January which was the check she made over the phone?

4. Can lenders see all of those hard searches or are the other 2 included in the "same lender" exclusion rule about hiding multiple searches? Please bear the date gap in mind.

I did ask an account representative at Addison Lee, who brushed off my distaste of the extra searches and claimed it was common practice for companies to make multiple searches.

Thanks for your help with this!

chattychappy · 4 February 2018 at 11:44AM

I think you can complain. You agreed to a single search, so the further searches were unauthorised. Given Addison Lee's attitude, perhaps complain straight to Call Credit and ask them to remove the record of the further searches. The only tricky issue would be if there was something in Addison Lee's T+Cs that allows them to make further searches, but what the lady on the phone said should really override this.

My business can credit check via Experian. I have a fixed package so individual searches cost me almost nothing. The software is easy to use. I am careful to save search results. But I can imagine another company might be rather disorganised and re-search each time somebody needs to look at it because it's easier that way.

On each search, there is a yes/no question asking if I have the applicant's permission to do the search.

AllieKat · 4 February 2018 at 1:15PM

Given how many Addison Lee drivers drive... I would have expected some kind of wreck, just not a credit report one

T-G-C · 4 February 2018 at 1:42PM

chattychappy wrote: »

I think you can complain. You agreed to a single search, so the further searches were unauthorised. Given Addison Lee's attitude, perhaps complain straight to Call Credit and ask them to remove the record of the further searches. The only tricky issue would be if there was something in Addison Lee's T+Cs that allows them to make further searches, but what the lady on the phone said should really override this.

My business can credit check via Experian. I have a fixed package so individual searches cost me almost nothing. The software is easy to use. I am careful to save search results. But I can imagine another company might be rather disorganised and re-search each time somebody needs to look at it because it's easier that way.

On each search, there is a yes/no question asking if I have the applicant's permission to do the search.

It must be quite interesting for you, as credit checking yourself using their lender system would display exactly what a creditor can see, rather than the consumer version of the report file

I know it would leave a hard search, but I’d sacrifice one hard search to get an accurate lender perspective view of my credit file.

I’ve emailed their Credit Control team as the last responder was from another department.

They can provide a decision on whether the hard searches can be removed, due to their site malfunctioning.

tenchy · 4 February 2018 at 10:47PM

chattychappy wrote: »

I think you can complain. You agreed to a single search, so the further searches were unauthorised. Given Addison Lee's attitude, perhaps complain straight to Call Credit and ask them to remove the record of the further searches. The only tricky issue would be if there was something in Addison Lee's T+Cs that allows them to make further searches, but what the lady on the phone said should really override this.

My business can credit check via Experian. I have a fixed package so individual searches cost me almost nothing. The software is easy to use. I am careful to save search results. But I can imagine another company might be rather disorganised and re-search each time somebody needs to look at it because it's easier that way.

On each search, there is a yes/no question asking if I have the applicant's permission to do the search.

This is a genuine question, but presumably if you respond "No" you are not allowed to proceed?
Edit -- Also, when you say "my business", do you mean your personal company, or the (large) credit provider that you work for?

chattychappy · 5 February 2018 at 9:18AM

T-G-C wrote: »

It must be quite interesting for you, as credit checking yourself using their lender system would display exactly what a creditor can see, rather than the consumer version of the report file

You only get a subset of the information. Normally when people ask for their report (via a membership or SAR) they get everything that's held on them. When a company accesses the report it doesn't get the names of other lenders and some of the older stuff is missing. It does show if there have been any CCJs and whether you are on the post office address database, I think. No doubt there are other services companies can subscribe to.

T-G-C wrote: »

I know it would leave a hard search, but I!!!8217;d sacrifice one hard search to get an accurate lender perspective view of my credit file.

It's not worth it. Also,I think there is no one "perspective". Different services might well provide different levels of detail. I got the cheapest one!

tenchy wrote: »

This is a genuine question, but presumably if you respond "No" you are not allowed to proceed?

Correct. On one occasion I missed the box (which is unchecked by default, meaning you haven't obtained permission) and it kept returning me to the previous screen.

tenchy wrote: »

Edit -- Also, when you say "my business", do you mean your personal company, or the (large) credit provider that you work for?

My personal company. I use it mainly for B2B deals where a director has given a guarantee. I use it to check the director.

tenchy · 5 February 2018 at 8:56PM

Just to confirm this; my understanding is that only companies that contribute account data on a rolling basis can carry out credit checks (hard searches of all credit-related data) against someone. Presumably you can't just carry out a credit check on anyone? Is this more a credit check on a business rather than an individual?

chattychappy · 6 February 2018 at 9:47AM

tenchy wrote: »

Just to confirm this; my understanding is that only companies that contribute account data on a rolling basis can carry out credit checks (hard searches of all credit-related data) against someone. Presumably you can't just carry out a credit check on anyone? Is this more a credit check on a business rather than an individual?

No, I do "hard checks" and it is on private individuals. I don't share any data with Experian, though perhaps they use the basic data I give them. (Name and address.) Experian did some basic check on my business (who I was etc) and that I was registered under the Data Protection Act ("I need a Z number", as the rep called it.)

Is it the case that those who share rolling data can monitor someone (or get alerts) without further hard searches?? I forget now.

tenchy · 6 February 2018 at 10:29AM

chattychappy wrote: »

No, I do "hard checks" and it is on private individuals. I don't share any data with Experian, though perhaps they use the basic data I give them. (Name and address.) Experian did some basic check on my business (who I was etc) and that I was registered under the Data Protection Act ("I need a Z number", as the rep called it.)

Is it the case that those who share rolling data can monitor someone (or get alerts) without further hard searches?? I forget now.

Okay, thanks for the clarification. I've started a related discussion on the credit file board, linking to this one.

T-G-C · 6 February 2018 at 4:02PM

chattychappy wrote: »

No, I do "hard checks" and it is on private individuals. I don't share any data with Experian, though perhaps they use the basic data I give them. (Name and address.) Experian did some basic check on my business (who I was etc) and that I was registered under the Data Protection Act ("I need a Z number", as the rep called it.)

Is it the case that those who share rolling data can monitor someone (or get alerts) without further hard searches?? I forget now.

Authorised lenders which are considered an “Active” creditor on a person’s credit file receives unlimited access to their debtor’s records.

For example, Vanquis could pull John Smith’s file if deciding on whether to grant a credit limit increase. The categories of information assessed is the exact same nature of their original hard search.

Once a credit account is closed, the creditor will need to perform another hard search to access their file. Other than that, if a debtor has authorised a business to annually soft search for updates / promotions, then such will be performed without affecting the consumer.

T-G-C · 12 February 2018 at 10:41PM

UPDATE:

After a massive row on the telephone and reminding them of their responsibilities under consumer contract regulations, part of which was in writing, I have had the additional hard searches successfully removed from CallCredit records.

If someone experiences this issue in future, please contact me for the written template I made.

Addison Lee - 3 Hard Searches for 1 Account

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